<p>How much do these hurt an application? I have some, but by most people's standards here, they are not so great (i.e. really weak). How much do they hurt me in the application process, and could a great anything else compensate?</p>
<p>Yes, other things can compensate; great honors/awards can, very interesting personal activities can, etc. Hell, I know some whose 'weak' activities were compensated for by their being just generally interesting. (Look up alexx--he got into Stanford, I believe, without all the traditional ECs.)</p>
<p>However, it depends on where you're applying.</p>
<p>yeah they hurt, a 4.0 gpa, and 2400 sat with really weak ec's will not get you in any of the HYPMS. a great essay might compensate, since if u have no ec's, people generally think of you as some anti-social nerd, maybe if your essay is very sentimental and mature, then sure, it will definitely compensate some. </p>
<p>ec's are really there to demonstrate 2 things: passion and leadership abilities. research, science bowls, clubs and the like demonstrate ur passion. mun, debate, club leaders, and sometimes instruments demonstrate your leadership ability and responsibility.</p>
<p>so as long as you can show the admission officers that you have those 2 things, then it should be fine.</p>
<p>
[quote]
yeah they hurt, a 4.0 gpa, and 2400 sat with really weak ec's will not get you in any of the HYPMS.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't know--I've seen a few who got into HYP with rather mediocre ECs, but with near-perfect or perfect stats.</p>
<p>amciw: Think about it like this. You're the only person you'll live your entire life with, so you'd better be as interesting as you can. I can't honestly believe that you do absolutely nothing besides study. Admissions officers generally pick interesting people who would be great people to go to school with. It doesn't mean that you have to do a ton of outside activities, but you wouldn't want to go to a school where everybody just studied.</p>
<p>I disagree with you, adamonkey2. Do you have evidence that if you have weak EC's you won't get into those schools? </p>
<p>Extracurricular activities are there to show a side of you that's not in the academic record. They're there so that admissions people can see what you do for fun, how you spend your free time, whether you'd be an interesting person to talk to in college on a Friday night, whether you'd be a great dorm buddy, cool classroom buddy. They also reveal some more characteristics about you. I don't think the extracurricular activities I did were all that impressive--what's so impressive about playing chess for a long time and playing games in Latin club? Those weren't all I did, but nonetheless I didn't have 'passion' (what an overused word; it's lost its meaning and has now been misunderstood by many people here), and besides, passion is something you either have or don't have. Leadership abilities? Psssh. I wasn't much of a leader at all--I was more of a team player. </p>
<p>The idea is that by showing what you do outside of school (think beyond high school, people!), college admissions people get to know more about what you do and how you spend your free time, and they get a better sense of whether you'd be a good fit for the colleges.</p>
<p>Do you mean study as in study, or study as in waste away time on busywork? I hardly ever study in the former sense.</p>
<p>I spent a lot of time playing video games, debating (not spamming, debating) on internet forums, helping people with computer issues and technical problem (for free), and of course, getting inspiration for the novel I am currently writing. I'm not a very social person, as you can tell. All the traditional ECs cater to more social people; hence, I participated in relatively few of them. If you want me to list my ECs, I will.</p>
<p>Here they are, copied verbatim from my month old chances thread.</p>
<p>1 year Junior Varsity Track, 3 years Varsity Track
Mock Trial 2 years (11 and 12)
We the People (12, only one year allowed)
Sparrow Club (12)
Played trumpet for five years with school (6-10), still play outside. Would saying seven years on the application be honest?
Helped select fables, organize and produce a fable book for charity, intended to benefit children in Nepal.
Class council as a junior and senior. I should be the secretary and treasurer as a senior.
Volunteer hours are around 50 for random things such as weed pulling and extra stuff for school. However, since I realize there is little difference between shelving books for free and giving tech advice for free, all the time I spent helping people with computers counts as volunteer hours to. From ninth grade, I would conservatively estimate 200 hours.
I got NOCTI certified for CADD, but I assume that has little relevance to anyone.</p>
<p>Are they not weak?</p>
<p>Oh, one other question. Is the fact I spent all my time volunteering assistance with computer purchases and technical issues over the internet rather than working in a library or hospital like everyone else is actually a beneficial thing?</p>
<p>WRITING IS A GOOD EC! I strongly encourage you to talk about your novel-writing process in at least one of your essays :)</p>
<p>as for debating on the internet, so do I! But if you can do it online, there's no reason you can't do it in real life! Try googling the National Forensic League. You'd love the Lincoln-Douglas or Policy Debate events :)</p>
<p>as for video games.....well....not so much haha</p>
<p>It should be done by November. I could probably send the manuscript to them if they wanted. I'm actually starting tonight, as in I have the Word document active, and the length is only going to be in the Fahrenheit 451 range. I'm not really trying to entertain as much as make a point relevant to the world today, based on what I have perceived in it. But okay, I will try to make it the focus of one of the essays. (Oh, and if you could tell me the length in words of Fahrenheit 451, I would be extremely happy).</p>
<p>As for the video games, I think as long as 50% of your playing time was devoted to ones that required cognition, such as Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon or epic scale strategy games, they should see you differently than the standard (i.e. 1500 SAT) kid who plays Halo 3 and acts like a two year old over Xbox Live.</p>
<p>To Dchow, or anyone, really. With my 2350 and 4.0 UW, are those hurting me to the point I have compromised my chances of getting into Stanford? Or are the sufficient as long as my essays are good (which they will be; not to brag, obviously, but I am a good writer.) I am really scared considering the lengthy lists everyone else has that I don't.</p>
<p>Sim City and Roller Coaster Tycoon don't count as intellectually stimulating. I own them, and play them only when I want to completely veg for an hour.</p>
<p>Idk, those scores are good, but Stanford (moreso than HYP) really focuses on ECs and their exhibition of leadership and personality. They love the outspoken extrovert type.</p>
<p>Well to specify, SC3K, and RCT2. If you actually try to do good, they can be intellectually stimulating, especially if you are trying to optimize the design of the city of park.</p>
<p>As for the Stanford thing, I guess the class council participation is somewhat of a boon then, no?</p>
<p>Those ECs are not weak. You just have to know how to present them on the application.</p>
<p>One of my ECs was writing, which I made many of my essays on the different applications about.</p>
<p>" spent a lot of time playing video games, debating (not spamming, debating) on internet forums, helping people with computer issues and technical problem (for free), and of course, getting inspiration for the novel I am currently writing. I'm not a very social person, as you can tell. All the traditional ECs cater to more social people; hence, I participated in relatively few of them. If you want me to list my ECs, I will.</p>
<p>Here they are, copied verbatim from my month old chances thread.</p>
<p>1 year Junior Varsity Track, 3 years Varsity Track
Mock Trial 2 years (11 and 12)
We the People (12, only one year allowed)
Sparrow Club (12)
Played trumpet for five years with school (6-10), still play outside. Would saying seven years on the application be honest?
Helped select fables, organize and produce a fable book for charity, intended to benefit children in Nepal.
Class council as a junior and senior. I should be the secretary and treasurer as a senior.
Volunteer hours are around 50 for random things such as weed pulling and extra stuff for school. However, since I realize there is little difference between shelving books for free and giving tech advice for free, all the time I spent helping people with computers counts as volunteer hours to. From ninth grade, I would conservatively estimate 200 hours.
I got NOCTI certified for CADD, but I assume that has little relevance to anyone."</p>
<p>Why didn't you tell us all that before? That's what I do sometimes when people here say that they don't have any good extracurricular activities. I tell them, so all you do for four years is go to school, come back, study, eat, and sleep? And they say, "No! I do ___ and ___ and ___." Then we get somewhere.</p>
<p>Those EC's aren't weak. What's weak about being in the class council? And what is Sparrow Club, anyway? My high school has that, but I still don't know what it is.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think Stanford tries to look at the person (as in, you) and your personality traits to see whether you'd do well at Stanford, rather than say, "Hey, this guy didn't win the giant Hoolala championship! REJECT!" They won't do that.</p>
<p>So there is more to ECs than quantity?</p>
<p>There's a lot more to ECs than quantity. If you're involved in your ECs and show interest in them, that counts much more than having a bunch of ECs that you have no interest in.</p>
<p>Certainly. Of course, if you like to do lots of differenct activities, then do so! If you are interested in ten different clubs, then join them all! Just make sure that you are actively involved in them.</p>
<p>Hey, for the whole "showing passion/getting really invovled" in a couple of EC's --- do they care if you haven't received an award for it or if it's something simple like mentoring? I mean, i can write a decent essay about my tutoring, but i'm not sure that would carry the same "weight" as other applicants who hold leadership positions/won awards for their activities.</p>
<p>OP, i'm kind of in the same boat as you. good scores, not so great EC's.</p>
<p>I agree with dchow, they aren't "weak", maybe a bit different, it's up to you to present them on your app and essays and etc. </p>
<p>and...
[quote]
We the People
[/quote]
ROFL I almost choked on my sandwich on this one. "We The People"...?</p>
<p>LOL. What's it about?</p>
<p>"We the People" is an honors AP Gov class - highly competitive, challenging class.</p>
<p>I am writing a novel, too. That should, hopefully, take care of EC worries. I'm sort of banking on it for the Stanford SCEA acceptance.</p>
<p>As for the We the People comment, blueducky had it right. It is just government on steroids, and the closest thing our school has to AP Government. The constitutional reference gives away the focus of the class. It is an EC in that there is a debate competition in January, and the class takes up time outside of school with preparation for the competition. I am really taking it because I want the challenging class, and it gets me out of an easier required one that sticks me with the "normal" (i.e. lazy, stupid, and immature) students. I don't really love the competition idea primarily because I am a terrible public speaker, but I am still looking forward to seeing how it is. I am a tad scared because the competition usually is way more serious than we are/will be; it might just be a rehash of our state Mock Trial appearance. We were the smallest school there, and we got trashed by most of the bigger ones, whose student cared solely about Mock Trial.</p>
<p>What exactly counts as an EC? Do hobbies count? </p>
<p>Basically this is my understanding from what people have told me. </p>
<p>If a kid plays guitar in his garage for an hour everyday practicing, it's just a hobby. If a kid pays some guitar instructor to sit in the garage with him for an hour everyday, it's an extracurricular? </p>
<p>If a kid plays pickup basketball games at the courts everyday for an hour, it's just a hobby. If a kid pays some guy to join his 'league' in which he plays pickup basketball games at the courts everyday for an hour against other teams in the same league, it's an extracurricular.</p>